The present invention concerns a fitting for fixing an object on a rail.
The device according to the invention serves primarily for the fixing of aircraft seats on corresponding rails in an airplane, but it should not be limited to this, when described hereafter with the aid of this example.
It is known that airplane seats very often need to be shifted depending on the occupancy of the airplane, and this needs to be done as quickly as possible. The subsequent fixing in a desired position must in turn be done very reliably, since the seats need to comply with a definite mandatory speed of acceleration and deceleration.
Most such airplanes are outfitted today with so-called airline rails, which are generally familiar. For a more detailed illustration of an airline rail, refer to DE 202 18 780 U1. The airline rail has an undercut groove to receive a sliding body, while corresponding troughs are formed in the free margins of the groove on both sides.
Fittings are known for the fixing of seats on such airline rails, possessing the aforementioned sliding body, which slides by lateral sliding shoes in the undercut groove and can be displaced in this groove. In order to fix this sliding body, which also has a connection element, in a defined location of the airline rail, a retainer sits on top of the sliding body. This retainer has laterally molded thickenings between every two sliding shoes. If the retainer is lowered, these thickenings travel into the above mentioned troughs of the airline rail, so that now a further shifting of the fitting is no longer possible.
A screw is used for the lowering and fixing of the retainer, whose head presses against the retainer and thereby lowers the retainer downward. The drawback with this is that a very long screw path needs to be traveled, and this both during the lowering and the raising of the retainer. This takes an exceptional amount of time, it is tedious, and it often has the result that the fittings are not properly fixed on the airline rail, so that there might occur a clattering or even a loosening of the fitting. This is extremely undesirable. Such a device in which a screw is used for the lowering and fixing of a retainer is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,837.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,470 another device is disclosed for fixing an object on a rail by means of a fitting which can move with a sliding body along the rails of a groove and which has a retainer, which can be lowered into at least one side groove trough in the rail. The retainer is joined by a cylindrical connection element to the sliding body and is braced against the sliding body and/or against a handling element via a compression spring. For the moving or fixing of the device, only the handling element needs to be activated. The drawback with this device is that here as well a clattering or a loosening of the fitting is not entirely precluded.
Another device for the fixing of an object on a rail by means of a fitting is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,871,318. In this case, a locking pin is used for the lowering and fixing of a retainer, which is rotated to secure the retainer in at least two height positions relative to the rail. The drawback to this device is that it has a complicated makeup with many components. Furthermore, a proper and secure fixing of the device on the rail is not guaranteed.
Moreover, a device is known from EP 1 794 053 which overcomes many of the aforementioned drawbacks. Sliding body and retainer are connected here by means of a connection element, at whose end facing away from the rail there is a rotary element. The rotary element is designed so that it makes possible the fixation of the retainer, which can be displaced relative to the sliding body, in various positions. A detent trough or detent notch coordinated with the rotary element ensures a noiseless and secure fixation of the retainer in the rail. Furthermore, the rotary element also serves for the fixation of the retainer in the starting position, i.e., when this is not fixed in the rail, but instead can be removed from it or has not even been introduced in it. The elegant design of the rotary element as a bifunctional detention thus enables the sliding shoe to be introduced into the rail, a subsequent movement of the fitting within the rail, and a fixing of the fitting merely by turning the rotary element. Such a turning of the rotary element produces a releasing of the spring-loaded retainer, which then travels into the rail and is fixed there.
The connection element moreover has a threaded segment, by which it is secured in a corresponding threaded borehole of the sliding body. As a rule, for the noiseless and clatter-free fixation of the fitting in the rail the connection element is screwed for a bit into the sliding body, after the retainer has been lowered into the rail. Thus, the rotary element engages on the retainer by its coordinated detent trough, so that once again the fitting as a whole is secured clatter-free in the rail. A screwing of the connection element into the sliding body is done here with a suitable tool. Advisedly, a tool purchase is provided at one end of the connection element, accessible to the user.
The object of the present invention is to improve a device of the above kind and to make possible an easier detention or fixation of the retainer in different positions. The device should furthermore prevent an unintentional and undesirable loosening or even releasing of the fitting from the rail when it has already been fixed in the rail.